'At $80,000 to $120,000 it is seriously undervalued': The art world's Grande Dame is auctioning off her show-stopping jewellery collection
The iconic art collector Pauline Karpidas is selling pieces by Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, among others.
'There has always been something magical about wearing a work of art. Jewellery has always held a special place in my life because, more than almost any other object, it has the power to carry memory,' says Pauline Karpidas.
Her jewellery collection is now heading to auction, one year after the contents sale of her flat sold for more than £100 million — the most valuable single-owner sale series ever staged in London.
Her similarly whimsical and colourful jewellery is equally reflective of the personal style of a woman so embedded in the art world. They include pieces by Joel Arthur Rosenthal (JAR) and Suzanna Belperron, as well as pieces by Van Cleef & Arpels, Bulgari, Boucheron, Trabert & Hoeffer Mauboussin and Cartier.
The 70 lots featured in Pauline Karpidas: The Jewelry Collection will be offered in a live evening auction at Sotheby's New York on December 8, with an estimate in the range of $10 million. A public exhibition opens on December 2.
A floral pendant necklace by JAR is going up for auction.
So to is this coloured diamond ring, also by JAR.
Particular standouts include a gold, enamel and coloured stone cuff-bracelet by CHANEL, a pink diamond ring and a sapphire ring by JAR, and an enamel reliquary pendant set with a sapphire, peridots, citrines, rubies, emeralds and diamonds. The latter is from the 17th to early 18th centuries and was originally in the collection of Francesco Martelli, Nunito of Pope Clemens X of Poland.
'More than a collection of jewellery, this is a portrait of Pauline herself. Fearless in scale, bold in colour and exuberant in spirit, these are jewels that make no attempt to whisper,' says Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s chairman, Europe. 'They reflect a woman who trusts her instincts completely, collecting with an extraordinary combination of curiosity, confidence and an appetite for the unexpected.'
Country Life’s resident jewellery expert Jonathan Self adds: 'For me, the star piece is the reliquary pendant. It is completely unique.
‘Not only is Pauline’s cross stunningly beautiful and very much of the period, but it also has an amazing provenance. It was owned by Cardinal Martelli — an important figure in the late 17th-century and early-18th-century church — and stayed in his family for over 350 years.’
If that wasn’t enough to persuade you to bid: ‘At $80,000 to $120,000 it is seriously undervalued in my opinion,’ concludes Self.
Pauline Karpidas wearing a reliquary cross which will be sold.
Karpidas is best known for her art collection. Works by Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso were among the items from her London flat auctioned off last year. The 83-year-old collector has been acquiring works for more than 50 years and is a patron of Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Tracey Emin.
Born Pauline Parry and raised in Manchester in a working-class family, she worked as a model and as a secretary before moving to Athens in the 1960s. There, she opened a fashion boutique called My Fair Lady and met her shipping magnate husband Constantinos Karpidas, who introduced her to art, as well as Alexander Iolas, the legendary art dealer often credited with discovering Andy Warhol.
After Karpidas charmed him out of early retirement, Iolas helped her to curate her collection. Constantinos died in 2005; Pauline is now based in the USA, where her son lives. In 2009, she made headlines for parting with Warhol’s 200 One Dollar Bills for $43.8 million, making about 114 times her original investment (she bought the work, 23 years prior, for $383,000).
If you can’t wait until December to bid on Karpidas’s jewellery, coming up for sale a tad sooner is a magnificent pink diamond ring, similar to the art collector’s jewel by JAR. ‘The Bulgari Pink’ is estimated to sell for 10,000,000-15,000,000 CHF (about £9,000,000-14,000,000 at the time of writing). The 24-carat ring is part of a live auction with Christie's, taking place on November 10 at 4pm CET (3pm GMT).
Also of note in the sale are a striking coloured diamond and enamel ring, a pair of multi-gem clip-brooches from JAR — both of which look as though they could also be from Karpidas’s stash — and a Bulgari enamel and diamond ‘Serpenti’ bracelet-watch.
For more information on ‘Pauline Karpidas: The Jewelry Collection’, see here. For more information on the Christie's auction, ‘Magnificent Jewels including the Bulgari Pink’, see here.
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